Help with Alaskan Shore Excursions

[Bocadude85]

This will be our first cruise to Alaska. My DH and I have invited our entire families to join us, so we have roughly 15 people from ages 16 - 83 joining us so far. NCL (who we booked through) is not showing any shore excursions availible for this cruise on their website for some reason. So, I wanted to know if anyone here knew of any outside company's we may be able to book our excurions through. Just in case, her is our itinerary for May of 2009:

Ketchikan: 7am-3pm

Juneau: 7am - 1:30pm

Skagway: 7am - 5pm

Prince Rupert: 4pm - 10pm

 

Thanks. :)

[inkmahm]

It's way too early for excursions to be on the sites for cruise lines for 2009. If you want to get a good idea of what they might have though look for cruises in 2008. The selection will likely be similar. That's what we did with Princess.

[Lubbock2006]

It's just my suggestion but I would wait awhile before trying to book excursions. I think it's a bit too early for them to be on the web site now. Do your homework between now and Feb-Mar then start booking. DW and I have been planning on our 8/30/08 cruise since 10/07 and we have made changes several times after learning from CC members. I bet the excursion people at NCL are sick and tired of hearing from us. Read the Alaska board threads and ask questions about specific excursions. Read the Ports board. There are loads of people on these boards and no doubt someone here has seen or done anything/everything in Alaska. In the future I will spend more time planning Juneau. A short amount of time to see maybe the best port. We are already planning for the next Alaska cruise because there is not enough time to see it in 1 trip. Good luck

[love a good cruise]

check into Harv and Marv's they are very popular and really great trips. But If all of you want to go at once it probably won't work since they have small boats. You can always go to Mendenhall glacier and get some great pictures there. My suggestion is just check out the tourist website for the port cities you are going to, they always have links to local tour. I hope this helps a little.

[gg3]

This will be our first cruise to Alaska. My DH and I have invited our entire families to join us, so we have roughly 15 people from ages 16 - 83 joining us so far. NCL (who we booked through) is not showing any shore excursions availible for this cruise on their website for some reason. So, I wanted to know if anyone here knew of any outside company's we may be able to book our excurions through. Just in case, her is our itinerary for May of 2009:

Ketchikan: 7am-3pm

Juneau: 7am - 1:30pm

Skagway: 7am - 5pm

Prince Rupert: 4pm - 10pm

 

Thanks. :)

 

What an awesome adventure you are all in for. I will make you some suggestions of independents that you will find listed and reviewed over and over on this board. Read and study this Alaskan site often for just about all the advice and tips you will need, as well as the cruise line site on CC.

Ketchikan: float plane trip to Misty Fjords. Lumberjack show in town. Zip Lining. Some very respected float plane operators in Ketchikan are: Family Air Tours, S.E. Aviation, and Island Wings. You can google all those or do a search on this site and find all their web sites. Ketchikan is a beautiful little town, with great shops on Creek Street, as well as good walking tours.

Juneau: Whale watching is wonderful here. I truly think that Orca Enterprises or Harv and Marv will give you great tours. Prices are all about the same for this adventure. Orca has bigger boats, but I imagine that everyone will not be doing the same thing. In Juneau, you can ride the Tram, go to Mendenhall Glacier on a shuttle bus very cheaply, take a walking tour. We whale watch each time we go, which is just a spectacular journey.

Skagway: rent a car (s) early from Avis, and take a drive to Emerald Lake. You will see much info on board for this. Or take the train for a very relaxed journey and hear lots of history about the gold rush days. Dyea Dave is an independent tour operator who has a large van for tours of Skagway and its surrounding territory and he has a good reputation. Once again, do a Google for his web site.

You can spend a lot on tours or a little. You can do a lot of other things like kayaking, glacier tours, bike and hiking tours.....just depends on your interest and pocketbooks ;) . Best of luck. gg

[inkmahm]

This will be our first cruise to Alaska. My DH and I have invited our entire families to join us, so we have roughly 15 people from ages 16 - 83 joining us so far. NCL (who we booked through) is not showing any shore excursions availible for this cruise on their website for some reason. So, I wanted to know if anyone here knew of any outside company's we may be able to book our excurions through. Just in case, her is our itinerary for May of 2009:

Ketchikan: 7am-3pm

Juneau: 7am - 1:30pm

Skagway: 7am - 5pm

Prince Rupert: 4pm - 10pm

 

Thanks. :)

Your signature says you have a pent house for your cruise in Alaska, how cool is that? Not to be nosy, but by "inviting" do you mean you are paying for 15 people to go to Alaska? :eek: We are taking my inlaws for the next two weeks and I know how much it will cost us for just the four of us on a two week trip. I can't imagine paying for 15!

 

There are some VERY expensive excursions to take. With 15 people you'd be dropping $8,000 on the combo float plane trip in Ketchikan to see Traitor's Cove and Misty Fjords, for example. Or you could do a walking tour of the town for free.

 

edit: Wow, I see you are going REALLY really early in the season. May 2 is way too early for Alaska, IMHO. You won't be able to see nearly as much as if you'd go later in the season. We went at the very end of May in 2005 and loved it, but we still weren't able to see some things that we were too early for, like bears catching salmon.

[Bocadude85]

Thank you all for the great advice. We certainly appriciate it. Unfortunately, my DH and I do not have the financial means to pay for all our guest. We booked the penthouse diretly below the bridge in hopes to get the best views of Alaska from the privacy of our own room. Especially with an excess of 15 family members joining us, i see us locking ourselfs in our room quite often.

[june1]

Hi

We just returned from a July 30 cruise on Carnival Spirit and added on seven days on land. We booked our own excursions. Coastal Helicopters for the glacier/dogsledding which was so fabulous I don't have any words to describe it and worth the money ($429pp) in my opinion. My adult niece and nephew just booked the ziplining in Ketchikan off the boat on the pier and kayaking in Sitka was just a walk up. All of those excursions had availability. In Skagway we booked the 3.5 hour train right at the train station. We took a taxi to Mendenhall glacier in Juneau as we had missed the last tour. It was $40 each way for the four of us. We didn't do the whale watching as we had a Kenai Fjords trip from Seward.

Hope this helps.

June1

[CC Help Michell]

Thank you all for the great advice. We certainly appriciate it. Unfortunately, my DH and I do not have the financial means to pay for all our guest. We booked the penthouse diretly below the bridge in hopes to get the best views of Alaska from the privacy of our own room. Especially with an excess of 15 family members joining us, i see us locking ourselfs in our room quite often.

 

:D I love that reply!

 

I think that forward view from the Star on glacier days will be marvelous! However, as another poster said, the first week of May is VERY early for Alaska. For instance, one of the most commonly recommended excursions here for the Star's itineraries to Sawyer Glacier is the jet boat excursion add on NCL offers (Budget Queen, a very knowledgeable poster here, considers it a "must" if glacier viewing is a priority for your trip). However, this year the early cruisers on the Star reported that NCL wasn't even offering that excursion that early, as the ship they use wasn't in place yet and Tracy Arm still had too much ice.

 

That doesn't mean you won't have a great trip, but for recommendations for a trip in early May you might want to go to the Member Review section here at CC and read reviews from April (yes, that technically was the first cruise this year) and May of '08 to see what people did -- in which ports weather/cold became an issue, and so forth. Don't limit it to NCL, either. Check HAL, Princess, Carnival, RCCL and so on for the ships that visited Alaska this year at the beginning of the season. Here's a link to the page with all member reviews of Alaska cruises -- http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=destinations&destination=1

 

Things we did that probably will be available during your trip and which I highly recommend:

 

Ketchikan -- Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's excursion

 

Juneau -- Orca Enterprises (or another whale watch -- Harv and Marv is also highly recommended here)

 

Skagway -- White Pass RR IF it's available... in early May they could still have too much snow for the trip. Renting a car is another possibility, but that early the roads could still be blocked by snow.

 

I did look at the prices, though, for that week and you will be getting an exceptional deal, so perhaps even if the early date means less availability of shore excursions, etc. than you'd want for a "trip of a lifetime," you will at least get a great idea of the things you liked (and don't) for next time. In the meantime, enjoy that penthouse -- NCL does penthouses and suites wonderfully well. :)

[eaglewingks]

We recently returned from July 30 cruise. Highlights for us were Float plane in Ketchican, zipline and hiking at Mendenhall in Juneau, train in Skagwayand bus ride into Denali National Park. We booked all excursions independently.

[rhondakap]

Great advice to check the reviews for May 2008.

 

I vote for renting a car or Dyea Dave in Skagway. Don't rely on getting in touch with Dave via email--be sure to call him. In Juneau, whale watch if all you have is that short amount of time. Or maybe those who don't want to go on a small boat would want to go to Mendenhall. You don't want to plan ahead for Mt. Roberts Tram b/c the day may be overcast. Ketchikan--people on my ship loved the zipline. We just walked around and took the city bus that day.

[Budget Queen]

You first need to do your homework for tour selection, THEN find vendors, that run those tours of interest. Not the other way around. Look over this year's shore excursion list, it will be very similar.

 

However, you are going very early, so you are very likely to NOT get a full transit of Tracy Arm, meaning, no Sawyer's Glacier Viewing. Some ships did divert to Endicott Glacier. But to hedge your bets, IF glacier viewing is a priority, you need to consider glacier tours, otherwise, be accepting of not seeing any.

 

You are sailing the roughest routing out of Seattle, so if any in your group have any motion sickness potential, I suggest precautions. You likely will get very good views of the humpback migration, if of interest, then be out on your balcony first and last sailing day, necessary is a good pair of WIDE angle binoculars.

 

Be WELL prepared in your attire. This timeframe, has a lot of potential for cold and rain. Will make all the difference on your enjoyment.

[MercedMike]

There are soooooo many wonderful excursions in Alaska. There are so many ways to book them!

 

I wonder if you are planning to try to keep your entire party together for excursions? That can be a major task, and trying to keep everybody happy will be a miracle. Usually what we do when traveling with a group is pick out what WE want to do, and then invite others to join us if THEY want to!

 

The first thing to consider is the ship's excursions. They are usually great, and cover a great many of the best things to do in Alaska. In certain cases, the ship's excursions are the only ones allowed special places, such as the clan house at Saxman Village. The ship often has some of the best operators, such as Allen Marine for wildlife viewing, tied up. So read over the ship's excursions first, and if they meet your needs it is a very convienent and secure way to book.

 

From you question I am not sure if you are looking for a single agency to book all your excursions. This also works very well and can be very convenient. Shoretrips.com is a good one and offers lots of excursions, and you can deal with them all at once and use your credit card once.

 

The third option is to deal directly in every port with the local vendors. This can work very well and give you some very special trips. It is, of course, the most trouble and requires the most research on your part to be sure you are booking with reputable suppliers and will not run into any difficulty. You need to make payment arrangements directly with each vendor, and check the different refund policies. If you do this you are on your own and responsible for getting back to the ship on time. There are many great vendors recommended on this board and if you want to put in the time and effort you can line up some great trips.

 

You can check out several trip reports to Alaska and see many excursions we have taken, both ship's and independent, at

http://www.bully4.us/cruising.html

 

Whichever way you choose to do it I know you will have a GREAT cruise!

[Budget Queen]

I disagree and never recommend booking agents for Alaska tours. I've seen plenty of screwups by these nonAlaska based order takers. Rarely do they know anything beyond the written description, and it is far superior to just deal direct with the vendor. Then you get all your questions answered accurately and first hand, have the advantage of availablity and confirmation, with out phone tag.

[JoyceWatson]

In Ketchikan, we are going with Southeast Aviation on a Floatplane tour, their website is www.southeastaviation.com. I booked directly with them because it was much less expensive than booking direct through Holland America and we are going to fly and land for 20 minutes in the wilderness. We are a party of 4 from 13 - 49, I am sure that we will all love it.

 

In Juneau, I was researching and found many things to do that do not require booking anything, but I booked a kayaking trip directly through ssoceanadventures.com for only $70pp. This is also much less than through the cruise line.

 

I am going to Sitka, so I can't help with Skagway. Just check this website under ports for info. It helps a lot.

 

I'm leaving on 8/29, Oosterdam.

[Bocadude85]

You first need to do your homework for tour selection, THEN find vendors, that run those tours of interest. Not the other way around. Look over this year's shore excursion list, it will be very similar.

 

However, you are going very early, so you are very likely to NOT get a full transit of Tracy Arm, meaning, no Sawyer's Glacier Viewing. Some ships did divert to Endicott Glacier. But to hedge your bets, IF glacier viewing is a priority, you need to consider glacier tours, otherwise, be accepting of not seeing any.

 

You are sailing the roughest routing out of Seattle, so if any in your group have any motion sickness potential, I suggest precautions. You likely will get very good views of the humpback migration, if of interest, then be out on your balcony first and last sailing day, necessary is a good pair of WIDE angle binoculars.

 

Be WELL prepared in your attire. This timeframe, has a lot of potential for cold and rain. Will make all the difference on your enjoyment.

 

Thank you for the advice. But as far as sea sickness goes I do not think we will have to many problems since we will be leaving out of Vancouver not Seattle

[Budget Queen]

Thank you for the advice. But as far as sea sickness goes I do not think we will have to many problems since we will be leaving out of Vancouver not Seattle

 

Sorry, no guarantees, you can most certainly encounter rough sailing on round trip Vancouver sailings. My 3 "worse" trips, have been round trip Vancouver, one time lasting 3 days of very rough sailing with storms.

 

My recommendations are general for ANY cruiser, IF prone to motion sickness, take precautions. You don't want to miss a minute of an Alaskan cruise. :)

[Bocadude85]

Very true budget queen luckily for me I have grown up on boats so I shouldnt have a problem but I will pss that advice on to other family members.. Thanks again.